JUNE 2001
Grocery Store Lets Customers Pay With Their Fingers
Schnucks, a St. Louis-based grocery store chain, will begin testing in the next couple months a service where consumers pay with their fingerprint scan instead of payment cards or checks. The service, provided by Oakland, Calif.-based VeriStar Corp., is voluntary for consumers. To enroll in the free service, consumers have their fingerprint scanned by the merchant and provide them with the account information for the payment cards they wish to use. When the consumers pay, they place their finger on a scanner attached to the point-of-sale terminal and type in a personal identification number. The data is routed through the payment networks to VeriStar’s server, which matches it to fingerprint and account information stored in the database. VeriStar then routes the card account information back to the merchant, which processes it as a regular card transaction. The merchant pays VeriStar an undisclosed per transaction fee for authenticating the person. Consumers also can enroll their checking account information, whereby the transaction would be routed through the automated clearinghouse network. Once consumers enroll, they pay using their fingerprint scan at any merchant that offers the VeriStar service, says the company. VeriStar says it will cost merchants between $50 to $100 to add a fingerprint scanner to each POS terminal. The company is working with POS terminal manufacturers Hypercom Inc., VeriFone Corp., and IVI Checkmate to make the service compatible with their terminals. (6/26)